


The Spider’s Web

by BlindJeff



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Depression, Drugs, Fan-Theory, Gen, Magic and Science, Minor Violence, Self-Insert, What does it matter this is all going to be debunked by season two, references to death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26855758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlindJeff/pseuds/BlindJeff
Summary: There have been some... interesting developments with some old friends. Another human has entered this world and even faced off against my boss in one on one combat, the curse I’ve been researching has been split between two host, and now I have no way of getting my research to the other side. It seems to help myself I’m going to need to help them.I just really wanted to write a self-insert and a fan-theory on the curse. This is most definitely going to be debunked by season two but it was fun.
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Owl House. The Owl House is property of Disney Animation Studios and Danna Terrance. This work is parody and should not be used to sell or make any money from.

I sat outside of the house demon's perimeter, waiting for him to approach me. I remembered the last interaction I had with Eda, and how messy it was, and could deduce that I was on the ‘do not let enter’ list. So I sat, in the cold night, fog filling my gas mask, waiting. I could see him through the magnifying glyph I implemented into the mask, he was awake, probably waiting on me to make the first move. Strange, I witnessed the fight between him and Lilith earlier in the month, he let them get pretty close before finally attacking, however that could have been him working with the element of surprise because they thought he was asleep. In this case we both know who is ready, and what we are capable of. Giving a few more minutes into the night I decided that to get my audience I was going to have to technically make the first move. I got up, and put one foot in front of me. Instantly he smashed his face into the ground and emerged inches from mine. “Greetings, Hooty.”

  
“You know Eda doesn’t want you around these parts hoot hoot!”

“I’m clearly aware of what Eda wants and doesn’t want me to do, however I understand there have been some, uhm… interesting developments between all of our relationships that I think change the conditions in our agreements.”

“Hmmm, how can I trust you?”

“Hooty, you don’t, but if it makes you feel any better I’m no longer working for the Emperor,” he looks at me with, somehow, more suspicion. “You don’t have to let me in but let me see Eda and Lilith. I would prefer to do this inside but if some scars haven’t healed, and I don’t blame anyone, no one needs to see me.”

“Okay…” he retracts his head back through the ground and stretches it through the highest window on the building. A few seconds pass and his head smashes through the ground again, reappearing inches from my face, again. “She says they’ll meet you outside, hoot hoot.”

A shout is heard from the house “Hooty, let him closer!” With each step I take towards the house, the house demon’s face does not move from the very short distance it is from my face. His neck just tearing through the ground. Eventually I get to the front door and Hooty completely retracts. “Hello Eda, Lilith,” Bowing my head towards them slightly at each of their names.

“Jacob.” they say in unison.

“Now I understand the last time I saw either of you we didn’t end on the greatest of terms.”

“Understatement of the century.” Eda interrupts.

“Yes, however I’m here to help now. I witnessed the confrontation with Belos and know that now you both are sharing the curse. I believe I can help you two control it. Lilith, I know you don’t really trust me but I have been honoring your request to dig further research into this curse since our last meet. Belos obviously didn’t believe in my advancements and didn’t tell you about them but I have made them.”

Lilith crosses her arms. “Fine, but we go slow. We don’t want to end up like that other testing group.”

I start to tense, but I remember the current situation, I need their trust if I’m going to help, and in turn theirs. “I tell everyone it was sabotage,” I say, returning to my calm demeanor, “however that’s in the past. Now, I need blood samples from each of you.”

We enter the house and they sit down on the sofa in the main room. I take out my equipment and get my samples. As I’m packing my things I start, “I should be back with my new research within a week. And Eda,” I turn to her, “I understand you have a new apprentice,” she turns a scowl towards me. “A human too, I would like to talk with her sometime. Share stories.”

“I doubt you would have anything in common, even if you are of the same kind.”

“Oh I would believe that, you saw what happened to the ones I did have in common with. But we do have something very important in common currently.” With my equipment properly secured I throw a teleportation glyph on the ground and stand over it, and instantly appear inside my own house.

With this new research to conduct the week flew by. The curse that was put on Eda is unique In the fact that it ‘adapts’ to the victim. Sure the chant and the components are the same, however the results are different victim to victim. Even Eda to Lilith. The difference was in the form of demons. Eda was an owl, Lilith, a bat, strangely enough. However the most damaging part of the curse was how it affected a witch’s bile sac. This is what frightens and excites me the most. Another glyph, and I was at the owl house. Mid day this time. I figured there was no need to be secretive if I already proved I posed no threat, and if the human was here, I would hope to meet them. I approach the house demon. “Greetings, Hooty.”

“Hi Jacob, hoot hoot!” A much more cheerful demeanor than our last meet. He flies open. “Eda, Lilith, Jacob’s here! HOOT! HOOT!”

From the entrance I could see Lilith on the couch in the main room, fetal position, wrapped in blankets, and Eda in the kitchen. I allowed myself in. “Greetings, ladies,” I say calmly.

“Now’s not the time for sarcasm ‘doctor’!” Eda yells at me. “Lilith is experiencing the curse for the first time and I don’t have any elixir left. I’m trying to make something to make the pain a bit more bearable.”

I squat down in front of Lilith. Looking closer I can see some slight fur protruding from her neck. Eda hurries over with a steaming bowl of sin, I could only imagine the smell to be quite repugnant. She shoves me out of the way,kneels down in front of Lilith, tilts her head up and brings a spoon to her mouth. Lilith swallows the medicine with some hesitation.

“These are probably best taken with food anyways,” I state and place a small capsule of pills on the coffee table with an audible thud. Eda looks my way. “These are the elixir, in pill form. Quarter doses because I understand it should be split between you two. I recommend you take two whenever the curse starts acting up.” I pop off the cap and take out two pills. “Eda, water please.”

She places the bowl down and runs to the kitchen. I take my place in front of Lilith again, tilt her head up again. Eda returns with the water.

“Before I do this, I should know what’s in the soup. Make sure we don’t overdose her or give her any conflicting ingredients.”

“Pain killers I got from your world, don’t worry I only used two, and soup.”

“Well this medicine doesn’t have a pain numbing qualities to it. Do you know what kind?”

“Nope, kinda hard to read when your sister is dying.”

“Well I know that feeling, bottoms up,” and I cup the two pills into Lilith’s mouth and give her the water to wash it down. “I only suggest the food because I don’t have any sugar to coat these, not that I imagine that soup tastes any better.”

“Hey my cooking is fine!” Eda whines.

“Anyways I hoped to do the operation as soon as I got here, but with her already hopped up on drugs we should probably just monitor her condition for a day or so.”  
“What do you mean ‘operation’?”

“We need to get her bile sac out of her ASAP, but I’m going to wait to share my research with the both of you before that.”

Lilith’s fur was slowly retracting back into her neck. I could see Eda breath a side of relief. Lilith relaxes her form, I assume she passed out. Best to let her get some rest anyways. I grabbed a chair and placed it on the other side of the room, facing the couch and Lilith. I should make sure her condition doesn’t elevate. I only had a little blood to test my concoction on. Afternoon turned into early evening. Hooty flung himself open again. “HOOT, HOOT! Luz is here, and she brought a friend!”

Ah yes, the other human, the incident with Lilith nearly wiped her from my concerns. Eda came into the living room and stood at the end opposite of the front door, and waited. Luz and her friend entered, and while I had witnessed the near petrification ceremony and knew who Luz was, her friend struck me as familiar. Green hair, obviously dyed, but it brought up memories of when I first moved to this world, doing bounties and treasure hunting for the richer of this society. My thoughts are broken when I see the concerned looks facing me. Honestly I forget I’m wearing this mask most of the time. I release the magical binds that secure it to my face and pull down my hood. The familiar and repugnant smells of the owl house hit my nostrils. “Greetings, I’m-”

“Children this is Jacob, he’s an old friend who’s here to help me and Lilith with the curse.”

The one I know as Luz points to me “Round ears, you’re human!”

“Yes.”

“But I thought I was the only human on the boiling isles, how did you get here?”

“Same way as you, maybe a bit more bloodied, but the same door.”

“Eda never told me about you.”

Eda pipes up. “Honestly I forgot he existed, we had a bit of a falling out about ten years ago and we haven’t crossed paths until now.”

“Ten years!?” Luz shouts. “How long have you been here?”

“15 years.”

“15!? What have you seen? How do you survive? Do you have a palism? Can’t you do actual magic like other witches?”

“As for that last one, not really.” She looked disappointed with that answer. “But the rest of the question I will answer in due time. Right now Lilith should be our biggest concern.”

The green haired one speaks up “What do you know about the curse?”

“Sadly, due to the nature of the scientific method I can’t say I know anything definitively, all I know are theories that will need more subjects, tests, and replicative tests to confirm anything. However I do believe I had enough of a sample to work on a treatment for the curse.”

“Can you cure them?” The green one asks.

“I’ll put it like this, if I could cure this curse I would have told Lilith a long time ago. Luckily Eda had the elixirs with her so Lilith never pressed my research anymore than need be.”

She looked down, very disappointed with my answer. “Oh.”

“I would love to explain my theories but Lilith should be awake for them, it has been a few hours so the cocktail should be wearing off around now.”

Lilith suddenly stirs.

“How convenient.”

She turns over so she is now facing the room. I see a hand instantly go for her neck and feel around. Finding no fur her form relaxes. “What time is it?” She asks in a soft, tired voice.”

“Early evening.” Eda answers.

Lilith sat up, still wrapped in her blanket. “I’m sorry sister, I never knew the curse was this painful.”

“Eh, I can barely feel it after all this time. Anyways our ‘doctor’ has some news he would like to give us.” She turns to me.

“Oh of course, but we need to check on her condition first. Lilith, how are you feeling?”

“Well I suppose, tired maybe. I don’t feel the curse if that’s what you’re asking.”

I walk over, sit next to her on the couch, and take out a pen light. “Turn towards me. Stare forward and don’t move your eyes or head.” She does as she’s told, A small wince when I first turn the light on but who wouldn’t. Her gray eye did seem slightly darker than the last time I saw them but that could have been because I wasn’t paying close attention. The rest of the exam went off with nothing of note. “Would you like anything to drink? Water perhaps?”

“Water would be fine, thank you.”

I go to the kitchen and grab a glass. When I get back everyone is already on the couch, the adult on the left, children on the right, awaiting my presentation. Honestly I’m quite nervous, I was never good at public speaking. I set the water on the coffee table and go back to my chair across the room.

“So,” Eda starts, “What is this curse.”

“Yes, so, to explain this I would like you to picture an egg. Heh..”

“What’s so funny?” Eda asks with some snark behind her voice.

“Just, uh, a podcast I heard a long time ago. Do you guys have that here?”

“What’s a podcast?” asked the green haired one.

“It’s like a talk show. A bunch of people sit around and talk about various things. Listen to it over the net, or I guess here it would be over the hex. A hexcast sounds about right, but that just sounds like I’m casting hex. Anyways back to the point. I need you to imagine an egg, just a normal hard-shell egg. An egg basically has four parts to it, the yolk, the white, the membrane, and the shell. There is a way to remove a shell from the membrane without damaging it. A healthy witch’s bile sac essentially a magical egg with just a membrane, and then you have the yolk and white inside that. This membrane can open itself up to let more nutrients in to create the magic bile, and let that bile out to create magic. There are also some other uses for the bile sac but I don’t need to get into them right now. Even though this isn’t how it works in eggs, for the sake of the metaphor the yolk is going to act as the machine that turns the nutrients into bile. Now we have our egg, just the membrane, white, and yolk. What the curse is is the shell. Now it becomes much harder for the egg to open up and let in nutrients and let out bile without doing some damage and making it much harder to repair the membrane. The elixir did help some, but like any disease, or in this case curse, it started to form a resistance. Luckily the way you ‘treated’ it made it so that the curse shouldn’t evolve as fast as it was. You essentially took the egg, sliced it clean down the middle, and attached half of the shell to another membrane. However in this process you destroyed both membranes.”

Lilith interrupts. “Wait, if we just ‘attached the shell to another membrane’ why did it destroy my bile sac?”

“One shell does not fit all. Also Eda’s shell had mutated so much, it was gnarled, had growths, and was probably leaking without healing over in some places. When you placed it on your healthy, inexperienced sac, it just popped. Now the egg whites and the yolk are just on the kitchen floor, unusable.”

“What does this have to do with an operation?” Eda kicks in.

“What operation?” As Lilith turns to Eda.

“You see, the problem with magic bile is that, if not contained properly inside a healthy sac, it will eat a witch from the inside out. Magic bile is toxic. It’s like if we all didn’t have a protective enzyme lining our stomachs we could all theoretically melt. I have performed multiple autopsy on witches, where the unused bile just eats a hole through their back. Luckily,” I turn to Lilith, “while your bile sac is practically dead, you still have some enzymes blocking off the bile. They won’t last long though.”

“What about Eda?” The other human asks.

“Eda is a special case because she is basically already dead.”

“WHAT!” Contributed to by all audience members besides Eda.

“Well she’s what I would call an undead, and a very special one at that, a regenerator. What’s going to happen is that her body will eat up all the dead sac cells and use them to make different cells. We may need to pump the bile out but that shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.”

“Do it, now,” blankly states Lilith.

“Why so quick? Didn’t see that trusting of me a week ago.”

“While that particular incident was questionable at the least, in the court, you were the best healer, or doctor as you put it, that we had, taking risks and giving the patient what they wanted above all else. I’m your patient, and what I want is the bile sac out, now.”

“Well I was hoping to wait a while because we did just shovel you with drugs, or potions in your dialect, but if you want t o go out now I see no reason to wait. From what I could draw from my brief scan you're in good condition. I would recommend the children leave however, unless you want to see inside a witch.”

“Yeah, it’s getting pretty late anyways. Amity should probably go back home,” Luz states.

“Yeah I just wanted to see if my mentor was alright, but it looks like she’s in good hands.”

“Excellent, and Amity, that name sound familiar. You wouldn’t happen to have two older siblings, twins if I recall?”

“Um, yes, how did you know?”

“Ah, I used to work with your parents a long time ago, when I first got here almost. Treasure hunting if they needed some nice artifacts for the living room, gave me a chance to explore the world, take notes. Here’s my card.” I produce from under my cloak a business card. “Give it to your parents if you like. Tell them ‘The Spider’ is back in business.”

With that Amity said her goodbyes to Lilith and was on her way. I took my doctors bag of holding from underneath my cloak of holding, and started setting up the equipment. And in my worst German accent, “now ve practice medicine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I don’t know if I’ll add more. This was basically just a way to get my two cents in about the curse while putting in my OC. I do have more adventures on the storyboards potentially but this is my first real fan fiction that I’m publishing so I’ll just see the reception and go from there.


	2. Field Trip Ups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Becoming well acquainted with the other human, I decide to show her a wonderful garden I found on this world, and tell her to invite her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the last one did okay. Not great, buts it’s nice to know a good amount of people liked it, and those that did thanks for the upvotes and kudos. Anyways there may or may not be two to three more chapters planed, depends. This chapter is definitely longer, now with two theories and three lore dumps.

Look at you. Living underground, no way to get back home. Everyone probably thinks you died, and most probably wouldn’t mind that. You’re annoying. You let jokes go on for too long, you’re too shy, you talk at the wrong times. You’re ugly. That pixie cut looks terrible. For someone with straight, black hair it’s too springy. Your Shoulders are too broad for your form and you have too much of a gut. You’re too immature. Listening to ‘Mayhem! At the Ballet’, collecting children trading card games.

I wish I could just shut up sometimes. I was being so productive, cleaning the dishes, my equipment, my house, but no. I just had to overtly criticize myself. I’m still doing it.

My perimeter alarm starts going off. I grab my staff and put my hand on the spider palisman, allowing me to see through the spiders on my property. It’s four children. I forgot briefly that I was going to take them on a field trip today. I turn off all the lights, grab my cloak, and make my way up the ladder to the trapdoor entrance. The door is enchanted in such a way that when I open it the ground doesn’t open nor is the door visible from the outside. The mask I carry allows me to see the hatch from the outside. I poke my head out.

They’re about ten feet in front of me, facing away. I hear Luz first. “The magic compass he gave us says that his house should be around here, but I can’t see anything.”

“Maybe he’s using an invisibility spell on his house,” suggested the shortest one.

“I’m sure he’ll show up, I don’t believe he would be the kind to give us a faulty compass,” states the dark blue haired one.

“Don’t put that past me though.” They turn around.

“AHH! He’s been decapitated!” Luz points.

“AAAAAHHH!” Everyone starts screaming.

“Why are you guys so surprised?” I climb out of the hole. “You’ve seen Eda mutilate herself, probably on a daily basis.”

They all regained themselves. “Yeah, but Eda’s dead, and a witch. You’re human and alive. At least, we think you are.” Amity points out.

“Sometimes, I wish.”

They all look at me with concerned expressions

“Sorry, just a bit of, morbid, humor.” They relax again. “Anyways I have some new faces to meet!” I turn to the blue haired one and the short one. “Willow and Gus, I presume?”

Gus is the first to talk. “Yeah! It’s really exciting to see another human! Especially one that has been living in our world for years! Could you please give me an interview later?”

“Of course! I would love to tell you about my observations.”

Willow speaks up, “Luz was pretty adamant about getting me to come on this ‘field trip’ as she called it. Said you were going to take us somewhere special?”

“Willow you are a plant witch, correct?”

She nods. “How did you know?”

“Luz and I trade stories when I do house calls. You’re gonna love this place. Now, no good field trip would be complete without a proper lesson tied into it. Today we’re going to be learning where magic comes from.”

“Wait, doesn’t our body produce magic bile and that’s where our magic comes from?” Asks Amity.

“Well that’s true however, I’m talking about where magic bile really comes from. The bile is produced in the sac true, but how is bile made, and from what? That’s what we’re going to be learning today. Now I need everyone to do a simple light spell. Luz you don’t have to.”

“Awww,” she looks sarcastically disappointed. “Why not?”

“Well, us humans make magic by using glyphs. The power of our spells are determined by the materials we used to cast.There’s one more way for us to cast spells but it takes a while to set up and maintain. I’ll tell you about it later.”

The three witchlings cast their light spells. Amity’s does seem to be a bit brighter than the other two but not by much. I expected that to be the case. Luz did one for the fun of it.

“Good, now I want you to remember what your orb looked like and keep it in your head. And now to reveal where we’re going to… a greenhouse!”

Willow just lights up with excitement.

Amity lifts a hand. “Why are we going to a greenhouse?”

“Well I need some fresh produce and ingredients first and foremost but I also need to demonstrate where magic comes from. I’ll start my lecture on the way there.” I take my staff from under my cloak and tap it twice on the ground. Almost immediately a skittering is heard from the surrounding woods, and emerging is a giant spider, most comparable to a giant house spider, with an abdomen big enough to easily fit the children and myself. I tell the spider to lay down and help the children on to the abdomen, securing them with binding glyphs so they can sit upright. I take my seat on the cephalothorax, the spider’s head, point the staff forward, and we’re off.

Luz shouts from behind me, “So where does magic come from then?”

“Well I believe we all understand what photosynthesis is, correct?”

I turn my head and Luz nods, the rest look at each other quizzically. Eventually turning to me. “Should we?” Willow asks.

“Well I’ll admit I don’t exactly know the curriculum of the schools here, but I digress. Basically energy from the sun is absorbed by plants which creates nutrients we or other animals then eat and ultimately get the energy. That’s basically what magic is. Magical energy is radiated from the sun and absorbed by the vegetation of this world which makes certain nutrients. The inhabitants eat the plants, absorb the nutrients, and the bile sac converts those nutrients into usable magic bile. The reason I’m taking you to a greenhouse is so that we can see this in action, somewhat.”

We eventually arrive at the greenhouse. I help the children down and the spider disappears into the surrounding woods.

“Uhh Mr. Jacob,” Willow pipes up. “Are you sure we’re at the right place. This greenhouse doesn’t seem, um, functional.”

It’s true, this greenhouse looks terrible. Broken and missing glass panes, a rusted metal frame, and looking in one would only see dirt. Any vegetation that was once in there decomposed long ago. “Looks can be deceiving, especially in this world.” I open the front door. From behind it comes a near blinding light, not unlike the one from Eda’s door. I step through first and the other follow suit. We are instantly transported inside a much more functional greenhouse. We appear to be in a lobby of sorts, various safe vegetation sprouting from multiple containers along the walls. The containers are broken up by doors in between them. The doors are labeled each with a different type of climate, with one door straight across from the entrance simply labeled “DEATH”. There’s also a quaint picnic table in the middle of the room. A collective “whoa” is heard from the children.  
Willow is barely able to contain her excitement. Near instantly going around and checking out all the plants in our vicinity.

Gus is the first to break the amazement. “Where are we?”

“We’re still in your world. Where exactly, I don’t know, but I don’t believe we’re on the Boiling Isles. The other doors will take you to other climates in this world and most of the plants are from here. I was able to obtain some seeds from my world and grow them. Some fared better than others, some inherited some strange mutations, but I was able to get a few to retain their ‘normal’ appearance and function.” They’re going around, reading the little plaques in front of the plants. “I need to check on a few things behind this door,” I gesture to the door with “DEATH” on it, “I have some plants to check up on in here. You guys look like you know how to stay out of trouble, or get out of trouble, but just in case give me your hands.” I drop a small spider in each one of there hands, which scurries up their arms and take root on their shoulders. “Using these I’ll be able to check in on you and see where you are. I’ll call you all back for lunch in a few hours or so, I made salads. Stay safe and have fun!” With that I wave goodbye and disappear behind the door.

There’s a chamber behind the door before the main house. This allows me to make sure I’m wearing the proper equipment before I enter. The mask I carry is a must, and along with that I need to make sure that I have no exposed skin. As soon as I’m sure I’m properly protected I enter the main hall of “DEATH”. The sign on the door is very appropriate, everything in here could kill me in one way or another. It’s dark since most of these plants and fungi only grow in darkness, and those who need light have their own boxes with their own magical way of illumination. Most of the fruits, saps, and mushrooms are deadly, obviously, but when cooked, blended, cut up, or powdered, they have great medicinal purposes. Most potion makers I find have their own gardens and some may buy their ingredients or outsource them but this, this is my eden. I go around to the different displays studying the plants, updating logs, and collecting leaves, but something disturbs my research. Out of the corner of my eye I see a shambling figure. Humanoid and hard to make out in the darkness. I remember, the attendants. They’re the ones who were taking care of this place before I found it. Plant abominations made of vines and wood, around six and a half feet tall. They care for the plants greatly and do not take well to intruders as I found out when I got here. Oh crap the kids. On cue a scream is heard from the door I entered through.

As I bust through the first door to the “DEATH” chamber I see Amity preparing a spell and an attendant shambling towards the group. I click the counterspell ring under my glove and snap my fingers. The spell circle Amity made fizzles out as I vault the table in the center of the room, drop kicking the attendant and pinning it to the ground. I start yelling at it. “Bee! Bee! Oh titan I’m so so so so sorry! I forgot to tell you I had guests coming over.”

A young, feminin, slightly shrill with a drawl voice starts originating from the head of the plant abomination. “Jacob? I didn’t know these little ones were with you.” It turns it’s head to the children. “I’m sorry for scaring y’all like that it’s just my nature to attack anyone that may be a threat. I didn’t know Jacob had friends.”

“Ouch Bee.” I step off of the attendant and it gets up. “Bee, meet Luz, Amity, Gus, and Willow,” pointing out each as I say their names, “everyone, this or I guess not exactly this, is Bee. She? They? It? Let’s go with it. It is an entity that controls these attendants and takes care of the greenhouse.”

“I’m really sorry about scaring you all. It’s my duty to care and protect this greenhouse and I really have no intention of harming outsiders. I just wanted to scare you so you’d leave.”

“Oh it’s understandable Miss Bee,” Willow remarks. “I too would want to protect a garden as beautiful as this. May I ask how you’re talking?”

“Why thank you dearry. It’s really quite simple, some plants have voice mimicry. I can mutate my attendants at a whim to best serve the greenhouse at any moment. For instance if the fly population got out of hand…” the attendant turns around, as multiple Venus fly traps instantly start maturing on its back. “I just grew a mimicry plant in my head when I need to speak.”

Luz is next with a question, “Wait, if you’re mimicking a voice, whose voice is it? It’s clearly not one of ours.”

“Well dearry that’s a bit of a personal one but it’s ok. I’m mimicking the voice of the last witch who owned this place. One day she just left me here and never came back. I can’t recall how long ago that was because I stopped counting the seed rotations after a while.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s really ok sweetheart. Jacob showed up, and while we didn’t have the best of starts, he does keep me company from time to time.”

I got a new plan, “Now that introductions are out of the way I believe there’s a way to make this field trip a bit more fun than what I had.”

“What do you mean?” Asks Luz.

“Well, to be honest, I was just going to let you guys explore while I did my research, but if Bee’s up for it, it can give you a tour and a proper lesson on the vegetation of this world, and a bit from our world that I told Bee about. Of course this is all up to Bee.”

“Why’d I loved to. Now I know you are just some young, learning minds, it would be an honor, and I sense a very capable plant witch among ya. Now follow me.” They disappear behind a door and I return to the death room, to my research.

You’re an idiot. Those children could have gotten hurt.

They’re teens. You remember being a teen don’t you?

Don’t remind me.

They’re capable of handling themselves. Luz was able to scratch Belos, and I believe Amity may be more powerful than we realize.

Some hours pass and I feel it’s time for lunch. Returning to the entrance I take my staff from under my cloak, take off the spider palisman, and set him down on the table. He resembles more of a giant huntsman spider than the more common black specks usually found in Eda’s hair, and sits on the top of the staff with the claws held under the body but the legs and joints protruding outwards and up. Using him I’m able to magically link with the spiders I gave the children earlier. I place my hand atop his head, “have Bee bring you back to the entrance, I’m setting up lunch right now,” I speak to him. I start taking out the pseudo salad bar, a bunch of coolers, from my bag of holding. I take out a few dead lizards for my palisman, which he seems happy about.

They come back into the main chamber. “Welcome back! Today’s lunch menu consist of a salad bar. Vegetables from both worlds are included with topping of all kinds. From meats to cheeses to dressings. I know they say you shouldn’t put that stuff on your salads but I mean, come on. I would have never touched a salad if I didn’t lather it with the polar opposite food and fats,” I say jokingly.

“Whoa! Thanks Jacob!” Luz shouts. The group’s attention is quickly drawn to the spider on the planter behind the table. feasting on the lizard corpses.

Gus is the next to speak, “umm, small question though, who might that be?” and he points to my palisman.

“Oh right, I never introduced him properly. This is my Palisman, Sydney.” He raises a front leg and waves to the children “Ah, I guess I shouldn’t say my palisman, but I can explain that while we eat. Come, come, grab a plate, take your seats.”

The gang grab their plates and start crafting their salads. After that they sit two to each side of the table, Luz and Amity on one side, Willow and Gus on the other. Amity seems a bit red. I should check on her later to see if she’s feeling ok. Seeing the children have their food I make my own salad. Extra meat and cheese because I hate myself. Then take my seat at the head of the table, utilizing the foldable chair I keep in my cloak.

“So, what’s up with the palisman,” Luz mumbles through a full mouth.

I tap the table, calling him up. Sydney crawls over my back and arm and onto the table. “Like I said I shouldn’t really call him my palisman. To make a palisman they need to share the same blood as you. When you make one you have to sacrifice a good amount of blood and that blood has to be your own magic bile so they can bond with you.”

She looks worried. “What happens when the bile runs out?”

“Well, Eda and Lilith Still have their palisman, don’t they? You see the blood you put into a palisman at the beginning is the only blood they’re ever going to use. They don’t exactly have a heart, or a way of getting rid of waste so any food they take in is completely used. Simply staying in the sun seems to be the way they, uh, recharge I guess. You have to remember these are just wood, and the bond they create is quite literally for life. Or, in Eda’s case, life and undeath.”

“So how do you have this one?” Amity asks.

“Sydney here was given to me by my mentor before she left. Really he’s the only way I know she’s alive, the previous witch that held the mantle of ‘the spider’. We don’t know where she is, but we know if she wanted to be known, she would come to us first. And I dare not question her more ambiguous ways.”

“What was she like?” Asked Willow.

I raise a finger to finish my chew. “Her name was Scarlet, and she was a mad, mad woman, and a genius. She cursed herself to see if her cure could work. To some extent it did, however she was stuck waist down with the abdomen of a spider and the torso up as a woman. She could still do magic though so she considered it a half success. I know all of you probably never played this game, but I called her ‘my fair lady’ to her slight disdain when she was being rude to me. It was all in good fun.”

“I know what you’re referencing,” interrupted Luz.

“Really? You’ve played ‘Souls of Dark’? Did you finish it?”

“Well I haven’t played it, but I did watch some lore videos on YouTube because they looked interesting, and the narrator had a very nice voice.”

“Huh. Scarlet taught me almost everything I know now, Eda would kill me if I didn’t admit she taught me a fair amount as well. But enough of the history lesson, Eat up! There should be enough for seconds if you wish.”

“One more question,” starts Luz. “How did you cast magic without a glyph earlier? I saw you snap your fingers and Amity’s spell circle just fell apart.”

“Ah that was the other way we are able to cast spells, artifacts, or really enchanted items. I carry two rings on me at all times, a counterspell ring and a silence ring. They are enchanted with their respective spells however they only have limited charges and need to recharge in direct sunlight.”

“Cool! Do you think I’ll ever get those?”

“To be honest, probably not.”

She pouts.

“Enchanting is a long dead way of magic it seems, only used when the first witches moved from paper magic. Then in turn, died when witches learned how to use their bile directly. I found these rings in an old ruin forge on one of my many treasure hunts.”

We all got done with our lunch. Any scraps were collected by the attendant to be composted. “Well I still have some little bits of plant gathering and recording to get to, and I’m sure Bee isn’t done showing you around the greenhouse.”

“Yes come children, we shall go to the biggest climate yet, the rainforest.” The attendant says with a dash of wonderment, and they’re off.

A few more hours pass and I’m done with my research, resource gathering, and produce picking. I put my hand on top of Sydney and speak through him again, “if you’re all done you can come back to the main entrance. No rush.” I close all the links to the spiders except for Amity’s. “Amity are you feeling ok? You looked a little flustered at lunch. This is a two way line so just talk to the spider to answer.”

“Oh! Was I blushing? It’s nothing, really. Feeling perfectly great. Fine! I mean. But thank you for your concerns.” She seems a bit embarrassed for some reason. I close the link to her spider.

They finally reach the entrance. “Welcome back kids! Why is Luz drenched in sap?”

Willow responds, “heheh, long story…”

“Okay…” We all say our goodbyes and thanks to Bee and leave the greenhouse, stepping out to the familiar, smelly air of The Boiling Isles. I pull out my bottomless canteen, “use this to clean yourself up a bit. The water may be a bit cold,” and hand it to Luz. She immediately starts trying to wash away the sap. I turn to the rest of the children, “so, do you remember the light orbs you made this morning? Well I want you to make some new ones! You may find some notable differences from this morning and now.”

They do and sure enough the results were improved. The orbs were brighter, more vibrant, like comparing a highly used incandescent bulb to a brand new LEDs. “Now you see, because we had that healthy food earlier your bile sac has already started creating some quality magic bile. Thus, your spells are going to be a little bit stronger for a while.”

Gus speaks up, “that’s neat! I noticed that Amity’s was slightly brighter than the rest of ours this morning. Do you have an explanation for that?”

“Actually I do, and it’s quite simple. I expected her to have a slightly better orb because she probably had a higher quality breakfast, and therefore better bile.” I shift my attention towards Luz, “how’s the sap coming along?”

“Good, good, I think I got a good amount off, not all of it though.” She’s shaking in an attempt to dry herself, and maybe a little shivering. “You weren’t kidding about it being cold though. Here you go.”

I take the canteen back, put it under my cloak, and grab my staff. Tap it two times on the ground, and the gargantuan spider comes back. Again it lies on the ground, and I help the children onto it’s back. “To the town girl. We might as well not make these ones walk too much today,” I tell my stead, and we’re off.

“Jacob I’ve been meaning to ask you, how did you get here?” Luz starts.

“Well, I came through the door.”

“No, I mean how did you find the door?”

“Considering our circumstances there is no use in hiding it,” I state. “First think of this. If this magical door is possible in our normal, bland, un-magical world, what other seemingly impossible things could be indeed possible? On the other side, our side, I work for a company that specializes in the documentation, capture, and on rare occasions, destruction of these impossibilities. Or as we call them, anomalies. I was part of a scouting unit, the medic actually, we got reports of a monster around a summer camp location and we were the first ones sent out to investigate. We were… unprepared to say the least. We were under the impression that the thing was non-hostile because there were no reports of attacks or missing persons cases, but half the unit came back maimed. We were able to capture it with some help from Eda actually. She saw the commotion through the door and ran out to help us. I was the first one to see her, trying to get the wounded to a safe place behind the shack and then seeing the bright doorway and a woman run out with a strange staff. She helped us take it down and ran back through and we couldn’t follow her. When the reports got back to the higher ups they sent me as a field agent to this door, and now, this dimension. That’s really why I showed back up at the owl house again, because I know the door is gone and I have no way of getting my notes back to our side.”

“Woah… so you’re like a super secret organization spy!”

“More or less.”

“How did you get your notes across? Are there more of you here?”

“Well to get my notes across I just had a computer with an ultra-powerful WiFi beacon check when the door was open and send my notes digitally whenever it was, and regarding if there’s more of us, not here anyways. They thought it would be weird if a place with very little knowledge of humans had more than one human show up out of the blue. One implies endangered or at least lost. More may imply a colony nearby.”

We eventually arrived at the town. The sun was setting now so everyone decided to head their separate ways. When I arrived home the first thing I did was check my voice messages.

“One message from: THE BLIGHTS,” the bird phone screeches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback and criticism is appreciated. I’m kinda worried I’m not doing the real characters justice, so if you think of anyways that they can be improved it would be greatly appreciated. See y’all in however many weeks it takes for the next chapter.


	3. A Blighted Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wasn’t expecting them to take me up on the offer... but trips to their home are always charming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know I said it would be weeks till the next chapter but this segment turned out longer than I imagined, so it got its own chapter. The fact that writer’s block didn’t bother me as much with this chapter helped with the speediness.

The Blight Manor. A fitting name for the mansion and the family. At least the house looks nice, still a stain on this beautiful hillside but a nice stain. The children should be left out of this analogy in all honesty. Smart, innocent, adorable, probably more powerful than their parents, and at least one of them is showing signs of clinical depression. So that’s always fun. If anything the parents are unworthy of their children. When we still worked in the coven I joked to Lilith she should adopt them whenever she would complain about her student’s, Amity’s, strict parents, but we both knew that was an impossibility. Lilith though did care for them, I sense she admired the way they could get along and held on to each other, and probably wished for a similar relationship with her sister once again. Ultimately another impossibility. My mentor’s research was never finished, I couldn’t continue it fast enough despite my best efforts, Belos lied about the cure, and while Eda in her pity let Lilith stay for the time being. Scars never heal as fast as you wish.

I find myself at the front gate. I press the eye intercom and wave to it. A voice comes from the mouth located under the eye. “Mister Jacob, we were not expecting you so early, but to be honest the Blights probably want to get this over with as much as you. I’ll let you in and let them know you're here. Someone will greet you at the steps.”

“Thank you.”

The gates open and I step onto the cobblestone pathway leading to the front steps. Hedges, bushes, and benches line the walk with wide, green fields behind them. I get the feeling I’m being watched, not the least bit helped by the fact two translucents figures seem to be moving from cover to cover, tripping over themselves and bickering. One voice female and the other male. I smirk. I reach the front steps and a servant is already waiting for me. Female, with a parlor maid dress. “Good morning,” I say with the tip of my head.

“Good morning mister Jacob. Your early appearance caught the Master and Misses off guard, but they’ll be ready shortly. Please may I take your cloak?”

“I would rather keep it to myself if you don’t mind.”

“Oh I surely wouldn’t but they would,” she giggles. “We all understand what you can hide in there.”

“Fair enough.” I put the magic paper and pen in my pocket, just in case. Then deactivate the pocket dimension and hand it to the maid. “Only I should know how to open this, so if I find things missing when I get it back, I would like to meet with whoever stole them please,” I joke.

“Of course mister Jacob.” She snaps her fingers and the door opens at the top of the steps. We make our way up and in.

Before the door closes I peer over my shoulder to see the two ghostly figures barely make it in. I turn back to the maid. “Have you seen the children at all today?” I ask as she leads me down the hallways.

“Why do you ask?”

“Well it’s been a while since I’ve seen the twins. They probably wouldn’t even remember me, and as you might know I’m working with Amity’s former mentor.”

“Ah, how is Lilith doing?”

“She’s doing fine. She tells me of what a great kid Amity is and all. Just working together between jobs you know.”

“That’s good to hear, and if you must know Amity is in her room getting ready for the day. Something about shopping with friends for a good outfit. As for the twins, I prefer not to involve myself with their shenanigans.”

“Shenanigans you say?”

“Yes, they seemed to talk in circles at the breakfast table this morning. They always do when they have something planned.”

The halls we’re walking through are just galleries to show off the Blight’s ludicrous wealth. Paintings, vases, both hand crafted and treasure hunted. Even a vase they hired me for. Said the water in it never gets bad. Most of the paintings are portraits, portraying the heads of the family. A few landscapes that I have to imagine are other properties, with a few commissions of their children. Don’t want to claim all the vanity for yourself now do you. Finally we reach the lavish dining hall.

“Please take a seat at the head of the table. The Master and Misses will be with you shortly”

“Thank you.” I don’t know how long it takes to wave your finger and instantly get dressed, but even if I arrived on time I have a feeling I know why they sat me down first. I’m taken back to a memory of Scarlet and I. She stole my phone because it had intrigued her, specifically my music. We walked in on a meeting late, slamming the door open and blasting my phone. I had no idea she had the phone on her. She must have just hit random on my playlist because “Careless Whisper” starts blasting in front of the most powerful people in the world. I didn’t know to kill myself or laugh my ass off. I ended up choosing the latter. Ever since then we were told meetings were happening earlier than other members in the coven.

The dining hall is located in the back of the mansion, with a view of the backyard behind the opposite head of the table where they sat me. The mansion was angled in such a way where the head of the mansion would just look like an intimidating shadow in the light coming from the window, another reason I came early so this tactic wouldn’t be so effective. The other was to catch them off guard.

The door I entered through opens up slightly, just enough to let the two translucent humanoids in, and closes. I pretend like I don’t notice. The door on the far opposite end of the chamber opens wide, and out steps Odalia and Alador Blight. Odalia on the far side but a pace ahead of her husband, to make sure I can see them both as they walk to their seats at the other end of the table. I immediately get into the most casual position I can and shoot them a good smile, just to show I wasn’t intimidated by them. They take their seats.

“Good morning Blights!” I start. “Honestly I’m surprised.”

“Surprised by what,” Alador responds, trying to hide the slight spite in his voice.

That you’re still together. “That you actually need to hire me for something. I doubt Belos would actually approve of one of his constituents outsourcing a task to such a lesser folk.”

Odalia turns to her husband, who looks like I interrupted his morning coffee frankly. “Honey don’t get so worked up. The worm is just pretending to be a spider.”

“Not even the same phylum,” I state.

She glares back at me. “The reason we hired you is because you're cheap, and you won’t complain when your name isn’t on the reports we hand to Belos.”

“I take it this is not a simple treasure hunting job then?”

“No. As you may know with the loss of Lilith the emperor has an opening close to him. All the candidates, including myself, are attempting to fill the opportunity by gaining the most favor in the court.”

Alador is next to speak. “Basically what we need you to do is stop some illegal potion selling, and we take the credit.”

Somethings off here. “Sound fun, I’m in.”

“Really? Just like that?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I jump at the opportunity to help my favorite high ranking officials in the coven?” That’s not really a lie, I just hated everyone else a bit more, they may even be the reason I had got the job in the coven in the first place. Lilith and Scarlet were indeed my favorite people to work with, only two to really show me any respect in the court, but they may have had other goals too. Doesn’t matter now anyways.

Odalia breaks my thoughts. “Well if that’s the case a servant will be waiting for you at the front entrance with your down payment and information. I’m glad we could reach an agreement in such a timely manner.”

I turn my head towards the two translucent humanoids ducking behind the furniture so they won’t be noticed by their parents. I shoot them a wink with my far eye so the Alador and Odalia don’t notice. “How are your children?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Does this world know what psychology is?”

“Is that another one of your human terms?”

“It seems so. It’s the study of the mind, the memories, the emotions, the traumas. What makes you, you. In particular I’m curious about how your children are developing mentally.”

Odalia is getting defensive. “Why, are you suggesting that there’s something in their lives that is a potential source for trauma? If that were the case I would snuff it out immediately. I love my children and would destroy the world to make it a more comfortable place for them.”

That’s not what I was suggesting but thank you for coming to that conclusion. “I’m not questioning your love Miss Blight. The beautiful paintings are-” a way of shoving your own vanity down the children’s throats, “-a great way of displaying your love for them. It’s simply the matter of fact I’ve spent most of my years here studying the more mechanical aspect of this world while never really focusing on the people. And where best to start than the most model family.” Literally anywhere else.

Odalia relaxes again and smirks. “Thank you dear. But if you must know the children are doing quite well. All of their studies have been going smoothly. While the setback of Amity losing her mentor is a slight hindrance, we have plenty of eligible tutors practically begging to teach her.”

“Anything to note about the twins?”

Alador is the one to answer. “They’ve been their usual active selves most of the time. Edric does seem to be sleeping more however. But put them together on a task and it seems nothing can stop them.”

“Ah it’s always wonderful to see siblings get along.” Because they’re all they got. “But if that's all I don’t see any reason to disturb you further. Thank you for the information, and ’ll see myself out.” I get up and walk to the door I came through. Dramatically pushing it open so it stays open long enough for the “ghost” to follow me through. The door falls shut and we stand in the halls again. “You two can come out now, unless you’re afraid your parents are somehow still watching.” No response “Fine, we should talk outside then.” I make my way to the entrance.

The previous servant is waiting for me with a tray and my cloak. “Mister Jacob, here’s the down payment and information on the operation.” The tray holds a piece of paper and two wads of paper snails, 100 in value and ten per pile. A bit more than I’m used to in fact and raise my suspicions further. Money is truly no concern for me since Scarlet left her bank account details with me before she disappeared, along with a few other things.

I take the first pile and undo the second. Taking five out and placing them back on the tray. “Split that among yourselves as a tip. I have a feeling they don’t pay you nearly enough here.”

“Thank you, mister Jacob.”

With that I grab the pamphlet, am handed my cloak, and is out the door. I walk a bit down the pathway before stopping at a bench and taking a seat. “So… you two wanna talk?” They drop their invisibility. “Keeping such a powerful spell up for so long must have drained you. Come, sit.” I move over to the far left side and lean into the corner somewhat. “Though I must say, work a little bit more on the spell. You two looked more translucent than transparent.”

Edric and Emira Blight, the twin children of the Alador and Odelia. Around when I first got here, doing treasure hunts and bounties for income, I met them. Of course they could barely talk the first time I saw them, but five years of regular house visits got me well acquainted with them as they grew. Their faces are hard to read. Blank? Maybe slight sadness.

Edric’s the first to speak. “Honestly we’re quite surprised.” Edric goes to sit in the middle of the bench.

“Surprised of what exactly?”

“Well, when you left the last time it suggested that you may never be invited back again,” Emira answers, sitting on the right side.

“Oh, so you remember that. You two were so young, and at the risk of sounding like every grandmother ever, look how much you’ve grown,” I joke. They seem to slightly lighten up. “However that’s one parental fight I can’t make a claim to surprisingly. Besides, I think your parents actually like me, or they fear their instability gets out to the rest of the coven, not that they’re hiding it all that well. But enough about your parents, I want to hear how you two are doing.”

“Fine,” they answer in unison.

“Really? Just fine? If there is anything troubling you two I would love to help.”

“No, no it’s ok,” Edric defends. Emira nods behind him. “It’s just that… things have been rougher around the house lately.”

“How so?”

“Mom and dad don’t pay attention to us as much, they seem strangely protective of Amity as of late, and their fighting more”

“Emira, anything to add?”

She seems a bit startled at first, “um… we’ve been getting away with more and more stuff. Usually I would think of it as a good thing but honestly, it feels like they don’t care about us anymore. Amity seems to be their star right now, and while I can’t say I’m jealous, I worry for her too.”

“How so?”

“They’re suspicious of her social life. I don’t think they should have any say in it, but it may be a little too late for me to say that. You’ve met her friends, right?”

I nod.

Edric continues, “she’s happy with them, like, truly happy. She may even have a crush on one of them.”

“Oh, which one do you think?” I ask sarcastically.

“I think we all know which one.” He smirks.

We all chuckle.

“But they’re weak,” Edric states. “At least in our parents eyes, if they ever met. One I believe has actually met them. It… didn’t turn out great to say the least. Our parents only care about their image and status, and they’re using Amity as their display thing!” He leans forward and balls up his fist on his thighs.

Emira puts her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “It’s ok…” she whispers.

Leaning over I can see his eyes clenched and teeth gritted, tears forming. “If you would like to stop-”

“No, I’m ok,” he interrupts.

“What are your fears about this, Edric.”

He sits back up “I… I fear I’m not going to be able to protect Amity if anything goes wrong. Lilith could. Lilith could do anything, but now she’s gone. I’m afraid I won’t be strong enough when this house finally does crumble.”

“Emira?”

Somberly Emira speaks. “I also want to protect Mittens. Our parents never dictated our lives as bad, but that may be because we had each other and there weren’t many others we could be shown off to. Like we said, they’re being louder as of late. Fighting, bragging, dictating, I’m worried about when this blows up, and I know it will.”

I take from under my cloak a business card and hand it to Edric. “Lilith, and I for that matter, are still around. If you ever need anyone to talk to or, in worse cases, somewhere to run to, call us. Granted I can’t say I’ve been in your lives as much as Lilith, but she loves you. Even without her magic she will risk life and limb to save you should the time arise.”

Edric takes the card in both hands. “Thank you.”

“And as for Amity, I believe she’s a lot tougher than we think. She’s still going to need your twos help when crap hits- wait you probably won’t get that saying. When things blow up, but there’s a reason one of the most powerful witches in The Boiling Isles took her under her wing.” That seemed to calm Edric down a bit. I pat him on the shoulder and get up. “Anyways I probably should get going, but I have two more questions to ask before then. Have your parents been meeting up with anybody recently.”

“Yes,” answers Emira. “Two figures who I believe are from the coven come here to talk with them quite frequently. They have interesting cloaks made of crow feathers.”

“Well that all but confirms my suspicions. The other questions have you two made your palismans yet.”

“No, why do you ask?”

“Well given that your twins it would be interesting to see if you need to make separate palismans, or if both palismans that you make could follow the other’s directions. There aren’t many records of twin witches strangely enough, and the interaction between a palisman and a ‘split’ life force is intriguing. Thank you for your time. Remember, Lilith and I will always be there for you.” I start heading towards the gate.

Before I leave I take a small glance over my shoulder. Edric has his head down again while Emira pats him on the back. I’m sorry, but I have to go get your parents a promotion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always feedback and criticisms are welcome. I really hope I did the twins justice. Anyways the next chapter may actually be a few weeks and is probably going to be all original characters. So fair warning. Thanks again, have a pleasant Halloween, and most importantly stay safe.


	4. The Spider’s Sting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hippocratic Oath prepared to be ignored!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I said weeks again but I was just having too much fun and just finished the story. This chapter is all original characters with mentions of some canon. I don’t really like writing with canon characters and prefer writing side stories with OCs based on the rules of the world, with some interpretations.

I am a medic first and foremost, but everyone in the Company must know how to defend themselves. Field agents even more so. If violence is called for we are trained to go for disabling shots. Medics who find themselves in the position of a field agent, surprisingly more than one of us, will pick up the phrase “GSWs can be fixed, death cannot.” The Hippocratic oath to us becomes more of a suggestion as time goes on. When I was forced into the job of field agent for this realm I was issued a personally customized M9, really it was only the grip, but eventually I put in a request for a suppressor which was approved. I am a spy after all. Witches in the coven would often ask how I survived my adventures and hunts. I would tell them “bullets can’t be counterspelled.” They would look at me confused, and in that confusion I would get out of there. In secret, Scarlet and I made some special bullets. Small orbs that would burst on contact, releasing whatever concoction was held within, that wouldn’t burst when the powder ignited in the gun. We all had to do some field work in the coven, and on jobs like this I would use a concoction with invisible, potent fumes, that when inhaled paralyzes the target from the base of the neck down. Often without the risk of brain damage, loss of heart functions, loss of respiratory, or death in general. “Like it or not I’m gonna need this this time,” I say to Sydney before we leave.

Small, abandoned towns in the middle of the forest are… a bit too obvious for a drug bust in my opinion. But hey, if bootleggers and moonshiners got away with it who am I to judge. Anyways the details of the pamphlet state this is the meeting place for this illegal potion trade, and whoever these demons are should be meeting around midday. So naturally, I arrive at midnight. Need to get here before the scouting units, and if it is who I think it is, there will be scouting units. The center town hall/clock tower will provide the perfect outpost, too perfect. The faces on the clocks are made of one way windows, opaque on the outside and transparent on the inside. This tower probably doubled as a watchtower. No bell even, instead wired a sound system throughout the town for the hourly rings. In fact, everything about this town seems too perfect. Eight gates, easily able to to alarm. Main streets wide, alleyways just narrow enough to run through, and dark enough to hide obvious traps. Lastly the gray color palette. Are they trying to make their meeting spot so easily maneuverable for spies? 

The town is set up in an octagonal shape, with a wall at each of the sides with gates in the middle and main roads all leading to the clock tower at the center. Smaller roads connect that the main roads run parallel to the walls and are placed at one and two thirds the distance between the wall and the center. Alleyways break up the various buildings constructed on these blocks. Most buildings are crumbling and decaying, but a good amount in liveable conditions. It’s a good thing this world doesn’t seem to have a homeless problem, or at least I was never confronted with one when I was in the coven. As deceitful as he may be, a quick look at The Boiling Isles financial records will show that Belos does pump a lot of taxpayer money into social programs. That could be because he’s worried about some underdog orphan rising up and beating him though, but I’m getting distracted. Back to layout. Before dawn breaks I need to set up proximity alarms everywhere. Every street corner, every gate, and every alleyway. Just alarms though that only I can hear. Mines are too dangerous and I’m not a murderer. I’ll locate the deal, sneak my way there from the clock tower, and pounce when I’m closest. Then the explosions come out, they wouldn’t be mine but they’ll probably be there. Once I’m done dawn is about 30 minutes away. I rush back to the clock tower and make my way to the top. I set Sydney down on a map of the town and surrounding forest. He can tap where he feels someone crossed our web. The map is also connected to a glyph in my mask that highlights my location on the map when I tap it so Sydney can come find me when we’re eventually separated.

As I’m making sure all the glyphs and webs are set up perfectly for Sydney, dawn breaks. Sure enough, a proximity sensor is triggered and Sydney starts tapping on the map. West most gate, I can see a small scouting unit. 10 witches in total, wearing tattered hoods. I cover Sydney with an invisible box and wait for the tower sensor to activate. When it does, I activate the invisibility glyph on my cloak. Eventually someone comes up. They find nothing and leave. As soon as I see all ten leave town I drop the invisibility and take the box off Sydney.

Hours pass and Sydney starts tapping the map again. West again, but this time at northwest and southwest. There’s more of them, patrols it looks like. They’re wearing cloaks instead of hoods, and a few have spears. Nothing professionally made it looks like, but again, looks are deceiving. I cover Sydney back up, wait for one to activate the sensor in the tower, reactivate my invisibility. They search thoroughly, eventually they feel the invisible box, but Sydney and I are ready for this.

“Stay back.” The figure who came across the box says, “and tell the boss we have a suspicious object in the tower.”

“Got it,” the second figure states.

As soon as the second one reaches for his hood, I place a sleep glyph on their back and let them hit the floor with a crash. The first one whips around, and right as he does, Sydney jumps from underneath the box and sinks his fangs through the cloak and into his neck. Injecting him with a magical anesthetic. Should be no powerful than a sleep spell. I deactivate my invisibility, take off my cloak, and put on the cloak of the guy I put to sleep. In my right ear I can hear talking. They’re clearing the search now.

“West clear, North?”

“North clear, East?”

“East clear, South?”

“South clear, central tower?”

If I know who these demons are I know their talk. I put a voice transferring glyph on my hand and place it on the passed out patrolman’s throat, changing my voice to match his. I press my other hand to the hood, “central tower clear, overlook watch secured.”

The demon talking for the west segment speaks, “as expected. Keep that perimeter secured, he could be showing up late, to make a show.”

I can’t help but chuckle.

“Who’s laughing?!” They snap.

“Sorry sir.” I reply.

“Whatever. Send in the caravans.”

Plural. Two options, one, this deal is bigger than I thought. Two, they’re controlling both sides. Most likely the latter. Two buggies emerge through the north west gates of the town. Sydney starts sarcastically tapping the map at the said gates.

“Yeah, yeah, as damaged as they are I still have eyes.”

His head bobs up and down, as if he was snickering.

The buggies are cleaner than normal criminals. Usually you don’t want to stand out, but these look like rentals. New rentals. Like you want to impress your date to Grom but you don’t actually have a good buggy and lied to your date saying you had to “borrow from a friend” that one time you took her out to dinner and you promised your parents you wouldn’t do anything stupid if they could get you the rental just for one night but it ultimately backfired when you want to impress your date by going over the speed limit and get pulled over and get grounded for the rest of high school. That’s what they look like. They each move up two blocks and turn onto the street towards each other and meet at the center west road. They park, but no one gets out. Are they trying to be as terrible as possible at faking breaking the law? I got the patrols down. Now’s a better time than ever to strike. Sydney can meet up with me later.

Invisibility is a powerful spell, and my cloak only has so much magical energy. The pocket dimension would be fine, but if I drain the energy I won’t be able to use any other functions. I keep up the spell to get across the central ring. Once I get to the first square I drop the invisibility and sneak through the alley. I go through the alleyways , placing a projection glyph with a timer against the west main street halfway through the block. I pop out of the other side of the alleyway. There’s a guard unit encircling the buggies. I reactivate the invisibility on my cloak and slowly make my way over to the street corner. Around now my projection glyph should activate. I look toward where I placed the glyph and a copy of me starts walking out of the alleys.

“Hola!” It yells, sounding like a guy who’s only done two years of high school Spanish in New England. “Como estas? Me llamo-”

“The Spider!” One of the guards shouts. They all start blasting fireballs and lightning bolts in the projection’s direction. The two buggies whip their reigns, the demon horses rear back, and start racing down the opposite roads they came down. In the chaos I drop the invisibility and activate the spider climb glyph on my gloves and boots, running forward and jumping onto the side of the buggy passing me. A few patrolmen running towards the commotion spot me. In one deft maneuver I reach under my cloak to pull out my M9. One tap, two tap, three tap, four tap, with the squeak of the suppressor they fall, paralyzed. I move to the roof of the vehicle as it races out the gate. I tap my mask to let Sydney know he should start making his way out of the town and meet me.

The buggy is just racing down the forest road. I make my way to the cockpit and peak my head down. “Hello.” I say, waving upside down with a sleep paper in my hand. I slap him in the face with it, instantly asleep. I swing myself into the cockpit and pull on the reins. The buggy comes to a screeching halt. I hear a crash from inside. Hope they’re ok. To make sure I open the divider and throw in a potion, filled with the same gas I filled my bullets with. I make sure my gas mask is on properly and make my way to the door.

“Knock knock! Is this food truck open?” I open the door. I see a figure in a hooded cloak made of crow feathers, face planted into the cockpit wall. “Oh now that won’t do at all.” I get it onto its back on the seat and lower the hood. A humanoid snake demon I know. “Snake!? Snake!? Snaaaake!?” I shout into its face.

The snake demon comes to with a shake of his head. “Damn titan, I hate it when you do that Jacob.”

Abraham, the snake. Second in command of The Crows, Bellos’ most public “secret” assassin circle, also the weakest. I feel sort of insulted that they would only send these guys out for me. “’Sup Abe. How’s the coven?”

“Oh you know, having our ups and downs. We seem to be missing some vital research after you left.”

“Oh really now? I ask sarcastically. “Was this operation Odalia’s or Liz’s?”

“It’s a joint. Odalia would get the credit while Liz would get the money.”

“Odalia doesn’t need this credit. She's the top candidate for Lilith’s position anyways.”

“She's probably just trying to embarrass you.”

“Probably. Speaking of your boss, where is she?”

“She should be joining us shortly.”

Just then I hear a swoop above us. “How convenient.”

I exit the buggy, and of course, she’s on top of the vehicle. Elizabeth, The Crow. A name, title, and job very similar to a character in a video game I played long ago. Her murder of crows would capture treasonous demons for the coven and bring them in. Nice to know I meet the requirements.

“Greetings Ja-”

“Wait!” I interrupt. I click my silence ring and snap my fingers. “I want to stack the deck in my favor before the game starts after all.” None of us will be able to use magic in a 30 meter radius from the ring. Magical effects already in use and potions won’t be affected by the spell. Won’t do much to us because we both use poisons most of the time.

She sighs. “You are being taken in for stealing property of the emperor’s coven.”

“Stealing is a strong word. More like given.”

“You can come along peacefully or be taken in by force. How do you choose?”

“Well ma'am, I already cast the silence spell. Be a waste not to have an epic fight, sans magic.”

“Very well.” She sighs. With a flip off the vehicle over my head she’s level with me.

She dashes towards me immediately. I can see the glint of her short sword under her cloak. I draw my fangs, coated daggers, and deflect to my right.

“You’re not gonna use the ‘gun’?” Liz asks as she jumps away.

“Thought we could do it like the old days.”

“Cliche,” She states, and lunges again. She goes for the same move, stab under. I know it’s a ruse, so I fake another block to my right. She slashes up to her right but I duck under. I go to stab up but she leaps back in time. I go the offensive, charging with a right hook but she leans back and the blade misses by millimeters. She stabs up on her right which I block with my left. I go in for another slash with my right. She knocks my arm with her unarmed hand and I miss again. We both jump back.

“Ain’t this fun!” I yell at her.

“I’ll be honest Jacob, no. I would have preferred if you came along peacefully.”

“Aw don’t be like that Liz.”

“You leave me no choice.”

Ominous, however I know what she has planned. She dashes to the right, then left, then right, zigzagging towards me, varying the distance each time. She comes in with a stab on my right, which I side step out of. She goes again but from behind. This time she jumps and slashes down, left to right across her body. I roll out of the way. When I look back she’s gone, but I know where she is. I wait a second, step to the side, and cut up into where I was standing. Into the side of a diving Elizabeth. Elizabeth slams on the ground where I was standing moments ago, stabbing into it. An obvious cut goes down the length of her arm. 

“Sorry Liz, but don’t be surprised when Odalia throws you under the snail demon for this.”

She faceplants into the ground, out like a light. I deactivate the silence right and go over to her. I take out my notebook of predrawn healing glyphs and start padding them down her arm. The cut instantly starts healing properly. I hear a shout from the buggy.

“Hey Jacob, you didn’t use that Grom poison did you?”

He’s referring to a poison made using Grom’s flesh. A hallucinogen that when entered into the system, will cause the victim to experience their worst fear for a few hours. “What!? No man she doesn’t deserve that! I only used that on the worst of the worst. What I coated the daggers in this time is quite the opposite. She’s currently having the best dream she could ever hope for, so she might be in there for a few hours.”

“Good, because, you know she has a kid, right?”

“Yes I know, I left months ago not years. Now help me with the- oh, right.”

I take her body into the buggy and set it down on the floor. I check her vitals and is about to leave when Abraham pipes up. “We can’t go back empty handed. Tell you what. I give you some information, you leave us with something, deal?”

“Snake, you know I can’t trust anything you say. It’s in your namesake, among other things.”

“Har har. But how about this. I give you two pieces of information. One maybe true, one definitely true, and you give me something in return.”

“Screw it, deal.”

“Ok first, there’s another way to the human realm. And second, Alador is not Amity’s father.”

Needless to say I’m caught off guard. “Wait what?! Which is which!”

“Nuh uh uh, clarification was not in the contract. Now, my evidence?”

“Curse titan, you got me.” I reach under my cloak and draw the M9. Remove the magazine, and the one in the chamber, and place it on Abraham’s chest. “Here’s your evidence.”

“Really? Your ‘gun’, was it? You really want to give this to the emperor?”

“I don’t need it anymore.” I ran out of antidepressants. “And besides, only Scarlet and I knew how to make bullets, and that information was ‘stolen’ recently if I recall.”

“Heh heh, you know how to play my games Jacob. See you down the road.”

“Good luck figuring out the safety. Toodles.” I feel a skittering on my back and look over my shoulder. “Hey Sydney, long time no see.” With that I step off the buggy steps and make my way back towards civilization.


	5. Disappearing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We talk.

I sit at the owl house kitchen table, leaning over with my arms holding me up and hands intertwined. I see a small cup filled with a steamy liquid get placed by my hands.

“Tea’s finished,” Lilith says as she walks to the chair left of me. She sits down with her own cup. “What did you want to discuss?”

Avoiding the question I ask, “what kind of tea is this?”

“It’s the tea you gave me a while back from your world. I hadn’t tried it yet but you said it calms the nerves so I figured now's a better time than ever.”

She’s right but I still don’t want to confront the initial question. “Where's Baba Yaga?”

She chuckles. “Edalyn is out with King and Luz at the stand today. Now what did you want to discuss? You always avoid the main topic when you're like this.”

I sigh and turn to face Lilith. “Throughout my travels in this realm I’ve noticed some very interesting linguistic differences, especially when it comes to magic. Example, illusions take on a more physical form where in my world it refers to simple, optical tricks, like that thing Luz does with her thumb. The fact that most inhabitants of this realm speak English is most surprising but helpful, learning new languages was never my forte. One word I barely come across is warlock however. What is this world's definition for warlock?”

She looks at me disappointed and finishes her sip. “In our world a warlock is someone who couldn’t hand back their ‘history of necromancy’ textbook and shout ‘it’s not a phase!’”

“I see. In our world it had multiple meanings. In the general eye it usually refers to a male witch or a person who gets their powers through deals with morally ambiguous higher beings.”

“Jacob, I doubt you called me here to discuss linguistic differences between our realms.”

“No…” I say reaching for my cup. “It’s just that… Snake told me something interesting.”

“He tells many interesting things, most of them not true.”

“It’s in regards to your protégé.”

She looks worried, “We can’t really call her that any more, but I think I know what he told you. For the sake of both our sanities however I don’t believe it’s true.”

“Probably. As terrible as both parents are I do see Alador being the more caring one, even if it is by the smallest margin. Hereditary traits and genes don’t seem to vary too much between our worlds, besides the multiple ways reproduction works here.”

“Yes, however I don’t believe Odalia molded Amity or cheated on Alador, and on the off chance that Snake means that neither parent is hers by telling a half truth, I don’t think Amity is adopted either.”

“You should though,” I state as I shoot her finger guns.

We chuckle. “Maybe…” she mumbles.

“Snake also told me there’s another way to the human world.”

She raises a brow. “I could believe that one. Do you think Belos knows?”

“If it is true, honestly no. We all had our secrets in the coven and I even hypothesize there may be a coup.”

“Interesting, any evidence?”

“I have hearsay. Scarlet was suspicious of the emperor and others in the coven. She hid all these clues in her research. If I was smart enough to put them together I may have something more tangible.”

“Scarlet… no one could grasp what games she was playing. More tea?” Lilith reaches for the kettle.

“Oh, yes please.” I push my cup towards her. “Speaking of our spider doctor, I find myself questioning more and more of why she took me in.”

She pushes the cup back. “Did your ‘company’ ever catch any male witches on your side, maybe ones obsessed with cures?”

I’m a bit caught off guard by the question. “Not that I know of, but then again, I’m just a medic and a field researcher. We have locations all across our world that I’m not aware of. Why?”

“Scarlet had a husband, who was obsessed with finding the secret to immortality, true immortality, not undeath. It was rumored that he had been to the human realm and learned of the term for a being who can fight death itself, or ‘doctor’. Decades ago he just vanished. You most likely reminded her of him. She wanted to keep you close.”

“And then she vanishes… leaving me with the secrets of the world, and enough knowledge to decode none of it.”

“Don’t be like that,” she smiles, “you’ve probably gotten farther than you think.”

“If you saw the bag of holding she left me with you would not be saying that.”

Just then the Hooty whips open. “Guess who’s back HOOT HOOT!?”

In the shadow of the door frame we can see Eda, alone. “Where’s the Luz and King?” I yell from the kitchen.

“They ran away with some friends,” Eda answers, “there was barely anyone in town so I decided to pack up for the day.”

Lilith grabs another cup. “Sister would you like some tea?”

“I would love some Lil.” Eda sits at the table. “How about a three way game of Hexes Hold’em?”

“As long as I’ve been here, I’ve never learned how to play,” I state. “I do have a question for Eda though.”

“Oh? I thought Scarlet would have handled all of those,” Eda quips.

“A lot yes, but this one may be a bit personal. It’s in regards to Luz.”

Eda puts on a more serious tone. “What concerns you?”

“When I told Luz about my palisman I told her there was only one way to make one, using your own witch blood. However, I left out the fact that there is a way to gain one. If the current bonded owner and palisman agree, they can transfer the life bond to a new owner. I know Scarlet and Sydney didn’t do this because Sydney told me that they would go down together, but I know Luz can use Olwbert almost as well as you do. I know this transfer of bond is not a simple snap of the finger. It’s more like a ritual and may take months to fully complete, but you’ve initiated it, haven’t you?”

Eda sighs. “Yes.”

Lilith turns to her sister, worried. “Edalyn, do you think your time is coming!? Is your curse acting up!?”

“Yes, no, I don’t know. I feel like something bad is about to happen and I want Luz to be safe when it does,” Eda says somberly. “I love her, and would never forgive myself if I left her without a fighting chance in this world.”

I get up. “Eda, I hope, no, I know your love can help Luz in the worst of times. Sorry to leave you like this but I have some errands to run before nightfall. Before I leave,” I turn to Lilith, “have the twins called you at all?”

“Yes actually. Edric was worried about a really nasty fight he overheard between his parents. I talked to him for a bit and calmed him down. I may be seeing all three of them a bit more often.”

“That’s good to hear. I expect to see those adoption papers within the month,” I joke.

“We’ll see…” 

“And Eda…” our gazes meet, “good luck.”

“Thanks, doctor.” She smiles at me.

With that I head to the door. I need to talk with the Hexside principal about getting a new job. I wonder if they have guidance counselors in this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Am I referencing the SCP foundation? Maybe. Most likely. Yes. Anyways that’s the end of this tale. May have some other ideas, maybe not. A lot of you liked that Boscha one shot so thank you so much! I may do one for Skara’s side. Feedback is always appreciated! Have a good day and stay safe!


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